Schweiker, Rendell Join Leaders from Across PA; Call on Legislature to Fund Pre-K

May 24, 2016

Schweiker, Rendell Join Leaders from Across PA; Call on Legislature to Fund Pre-K

Letter to the Legislature calls for $90 million investment to expand Pre-K to thousands of at-risk kids across PA

Harrisburg, PA (May 24, 2016) – Former Governors Edward G. Rendell and Mark S. Schweiker led a group of influential business, civic, military and law enforcement leaders from across the state today in support of continued investment in pre-k, urging the Pennsylvania legislature and the governor to expand access to thousands of at-risk kids in the final 2016-17 budget.

In a letter to leadership offices of the Pennsylvania legislature, the signers urged leaders in Harrisburg to cement bi-partisan consensus around a multi-year goal for growing access to high-quality pre-k for all of the income eligible children and begin looking at pre-k affordability issues regarding middle class families. Specifically, they called for $90 million in additional funding (as proposed by Governor Tom Wolf) as part of the 2016-17 final state budget.

This proposal builds on the $30 million in new funding already enacted for the second half of the current school year. If realized, $120 million in additional funding over two years for high-quality pre-k will serve an additional 14,000 three- and four-year-olds.

Across Pennsylvania, there are more than 175,000 three- and four-year-olds who are at-risk because they are in lower income households—70 percent of these at-risk young learners – more than 120,000 children statewide – had no access to publicly funded pre-k last year.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is the full text of the letter and signatories.

You have heard from many of us on the life altering benefits that high quality pre-kindergarten can provide to our commonwealth’s youngest learners. You have also heard of the limited availability of such programs serving only one out of every six preschool age children in Pennsylvania.

The 2015-16 state budget included $30 million in additional funding for PA Pre-K Counts and Head Start Supplemental Assistance programs – expanding access to more than 6,000 at-risk children. While this investment was a positive step, the fact remains that more than 120,000 income eligible three- and four-year-olds do not have access each year due to insufficient funding.

We encourage you to work with your colleagues to cement bi-partisan consensus around a multi-year goal for growing access to high quality pre-k for all of the income eligible children and begin looking at pre-k affordability issues regarding middle class families.

Specifically, we ask your support of $90 million in additional funding as part of the 2016-17 final state budget as yet another incremental step towards the above-mentioned goal.

Such an investment will set us on a path to reduce educational, public welfare and incarceration costs and have the most important added benefit of ensuring brighter futures for more of the commonwealth’s children.

Thank you very much for taking the time to consider this correspondence.

Pre-K for PA is an issue campaign supported by individuals and organizations across Pennsylvania who believe that investing in our children is the right choice and an urgent necessity. For more information visit www.prekforpa.org.

The Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission is a network of business leaders that work to secure public investment in early learning by focusing on practices that are educationally, economically, and scientifically sound by increasing business, civic, and public awareness of the importance of early childhood education.